8 Scrapped Movie Plots That Turned Up In Other Films

5. Tomb Raider 2 Used An Un-Filmed Scene From Temple Of Doom

The Tomb Raider video games are steeped in references to Indiana Jones. One might even say all they did was swap Indy out for the teenage-boy-pleasing vision of Lara Croft’s perky bum. The films that followed are not much different.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom opens in Shanghai. The gangster Lao Che and his men chase Indy, Short Round, and Willie Scott around the city of Shanghai until the heroes escape to an airplane that takes then into the Himalayas. The screenplay, however, called for the chase between Lao Che’s men and Indy to go across the Great Wall of China, and on motorcycles no less (where Willie and Short Round were going to be during this, nobody knows). The Chinese government, however, would not allow them to film on the historical landmark. Apparently in 1983, Spielberg and George Lucas didn’t have quite the clout they have today.

In the second Tomb Raider film, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life, Angelina Jolie rides a motorcycle a short distance on the Great Wall, and ramps off of it to meet Gerard Butler on the road alongside of it. This a double-nod: one going to the second Tomb Raider game, which features a race along the Great Wall in its first level; then also a nod to the character’s Indiana Jones influence. Unfortunately the sequence was created in green screen, meaning not even Angelina Jolie has enough clout to film on the actual Great Wall.